Dogs Teaching Us a Thing or Two About Cancer Biology

The German shepherd standing on my front lawn, and his friends in the neighborhood, the rottweiler, the maltese, the shih tzus, the husky, and the other exotic breeds, have one thing in common: Like humans, they are living into their golden ages, and are increasingly showing up with diseases of old age, including cancer. Dogs once past the age of 10 years have a 50% chance of developing any type of cancer. (A 10 year old dog, depending on the breed, is same age as a 55-65 year old man.) 

All types of cancers seen in humans also show up in dogs. For example, take breast cancer: Like women, female dogs (those not neutered, or are at a breeder) also come down with breast cancer, generally called mammary cancer in dogs.

Further, not only the biology of cancer is similar in dogs and man, the dogs also respond to same cancer drugs that are used for humans.


Comparative Oncology

On March 31st, 2014, The New York Times profiled the Penn Vet Shelter Canine Mammary Tumor Program on its website. This innovative program, run by Dr Karin Sorenimo, the Professor of Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, takes in shelter dogs for cancer treatment and care; the dogs in turn help advance research into the biology of cancer by ways that are impossible to do in humans.

BRCA Freed from Myriad's Patents, Supreme Court Rules

The Supreme Court in a 9-0 ruling invalidated Myriad's patents on BRCA opening up the field for cheaper testing for the breast cancer risk genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Myriad was criticized for selling $3000 tests and blocking mon-n-pop University labs to run similar tests at fraction of the cost.

Three Decades of SEER Data Confirms That Mammogram Screening Does More Harm Than Good

Nearly one-third or 1.3 million women over the past 30 years were overdiagnosed with breast cancer (ie, their tumors would have never led to clinical symptoms in their lifetimes) in the United States,  according to the research published in the November 22, 2012 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Spotting EMILIA at ASCO12 Chicago

EMILIA trial is the first study to evaluate the efficacy of an antibody drug conjugate T-DM1 in metastaic breast cancer (mBC) patients.  At ASCO 2012 meeting in Chicago, Dr. Kim Blackwell of Duke University presented the final analysis of the progression-free survival (PFS) results in mBC patients treated with T-DM1.  A few days back, this trial was featured in the NBC Nightly News (read here.)

T-DM1 Shows a Way to Deliver Chemo Without Side Effects

Two months ago, Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1) metastatic breast cancer trial (called EMILIA trial) reached a major milestone when patients treated with T-DM1 had longer cancer-free periods, also called progression-free survival or PFS, compared to those patients who were on a combination chemotherapy consisting of lapatinib (Tykerb) and capecitabine (Xeloda). (read here).  Today, NBC Nightly News gave a human face to this trial.

Breast Cancer Tweets From AACR 2012 Annual Meeting

AACR 2012 meeting summary - Breast cancer

EMILIA Study Results: Roche's Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1) Delays Metastatic Breast Cancer Progression

Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1) increases progression-free survival (PFS) in metastatic breast cancer patients compared to patients who received lapatinib (Tykerb; GlaxoSmithKline Plc) and  capecitabine (Xeloda; Roche) combination, Roche made the announcement today in a press release.  The overall surivival (OS) data is not mature yet.

The Link Between Diabetes and Breast Cancer

Both diabetes and cancer have long preoccupied public-health concerns, strained national budgets, and are associated with complications that may affect quality of life. They also share some of the same risk factors, such as age, smoking, weight gain, and a diet poor in fruits and vegetables. The earliest link between diabetes and cancer was alluded to in the 1930s,[1,2] however, convincing epidemiological evidence has emerged only recently proving an association between diabetes and cancer.[3]

One-Two Punch: Curbing HER-2 Positive Breast Cancer with Herceptin-Tykerb Combo

Using Tykerb (lapatinib; GlaxoSmithKline, U.K.) and Herceptin (trastuzumab; Genentech, South San Francisco, Calif.) anti-HER-2 drugs together doubles the odds of recovery compared to either drug alone in HER-2 positive early breast cancer patients, reports NeoALTTO trial investigators in the January 17th online publication at Lancet Oncology journal homepage.  This study provides a proof-of-concept that dual HER-2 block is better than using a single agent HER-2 blocker.

Top Cancer News Stories of 2011

(posted Dec 23rd, 2011)


Today's is the 40th anniversary of Pres. Nixon's War on Cancer (pbs, wsj).  It must be one of the longest running battles in the US history.  But, now Harold Varmus, Director of the National Cancer Institute, thinks that it is time to change the metaphor: Cancer is neither a single enemy nor a war (wsjblog).  While this "war" has consumed trillions of dollars and changed the face of cancer into a "chronic" and manageable condition, somehow, the word "cancer" did not make it to the top ten searched terms this year.  Google Zeitgeist (US) 2011  lists Steve Jobs and two of Apple's creations, iPhone5 and iPad2 among the top ten.  The rest is showbiz.  Just five years ago, "cancer" was number three on the Google News top searches (see here). 


For those who think about cancer, here are the top cancer news stories of the year 2011

San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2011: Clinical Trials Report

San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium is one of the largest gatherings of breast cancer clinicians, scientists and those with a stake in breast cancer treatment. There are over 8,000

Webinar Report: Impact of Next Generation/Whole-Genome Sequencing on Companion Diagnostics

Biomarkers are increasingly part of pharmaceutical and clinical strategy.  By some estimates, the success rate of FDA approval of new cancer drugs is 75% if mechanism-of-action and predictive or prognostic biomarkers are clearly defined, whereas it is 25% without the biomarker information.  However, identifying new biomarkers for companion diagnosis (CDx) remains a challenge—the identification of KRAS-type biomarkers is rare, there is a double regulatory hurdle and revenue issues hamper pharmaceutical investment in this area.  Whole-genome sequencing is an important tool in the discovery of biomarkers. 

Diagnostic Trailblazers in San Diego Advancing CDx, PGx and PM Goals in Cancer

Yesterday, I attended a half day symposium on companion diagnostics (CDx) efforts in San Diego which was organized by the SABPA Science & Technology Forum.  CDx is the identification and detection of biomarkers to predict whether a drug will work or not in a given patient.  Two successful marketed products are HercepTest (marketed by Dako) for Herceptin and KRAS tests for Erbitux and Vectibix.  San Diego biotech has a rich history and deep investments in diagnostics.  This was reflected in the lineup of various talks.

Diagnosed with cancer! So, what are my chances?

"One in four deaths in the United States is due to cancer." [...]  Statements such as this will make people sit up and really take notice.   Also true are the facts that, "among men, cancers of the prostate, lung and bronchus, and colorectum account for 52% of all newly diagnosed cancers. Prostate cancer alone accounts for 28% (217,730) of incident cases in men. . . The 3 most commonly diagnosed types of cancer among women in 2010 will be cancers of the breast, lung and bronchus, and colorectum, accounting for 52% of estimated cancer cases in women. Breast cancer alone is expected to account for 28% (207,090) of all new cancer cases" [read here].

Old Drugs have a lot more Firepower

Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) was in the news a few months ago for buying Abraxis BioScience for 2.9 billion (read: A Billionaire’s Biotech Deal And Old Drugs Reborn at forbes.com, or Prominent Drug Chief to Sell Abraxis BioScience to Celgene for $2.9 Billion at nytimes.com)  With this purchase, Celgene has become a big player in the  Oncology biz-space with two re-incarnated drugs: